Worthy Websites

Civil Eats
Paula Crossfield and her associates provide smart, literate new perspectives on all things connected to sustainable food.

Nourish Network
Lia Huber’s slick new site provides nourishment for body, mind, and soul. Packed with recipies, articles, videos, social networking opportunities–and even an opportunity to win a free trip to Napa!

OnEarth
Bob Deans, Scott Dodd, Wendy Gordon, David Gessner, Ben Jervey, Paige Smith Orloff, Elizabeth Royte and others deliver some of the best environmental writing to be found in one site–and I’m not talking about the posts I regularly contribute.

When it comes to the federal government’s eagerness to advance the private GMO agenda of Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, and other agribusinesses, nothing is sacred—not even the pope.

While the media hubbub might have focused on issues related to the war in Afghanistan and snarky American opinions of various world leaders, the recent flood of diplomatic dispatches made public by WikiLeaks contained numerous communications showing that U. S. government officials during the Bush administration were doing everything in their power to undermine the E. U.’s ban on genetically modified (GMO) crops.

In 2008, the state department’s special adviser on biotechnology lobbied Vatican insiders to persuade the pope to declare his support of bioengineered foods, according to a report in the Guardian. “Opportunities exist to press the issue with the Vatican and in turn to influence a wide segment of the population in Europe and the developing world,” said one government cable. Ultimately, the pontiff declined to bestow his blessing

France was given a particularly rough ride. Craig Stapleton, a former buddy and business partner of President Bush who was named ambassador to France, suggested that the U.S. start a full-blown trade war in support of the administration’s corporate friends. In response to French moves in 2007 to ban GMO corn, Stapleton wrote, “Country team Paris [the U. S. diplomatic corps in France] recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits.” With its strong anti-GMO stance, France was no doubt one of the worst of the “worst.” Acknowledging that it would take a protracted effort to change European minds, Stapleton went on, “Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices.”

In some cases, U. S. diplomats went so far as to do Monsanto’s bidding directly. One cable quoted in the Guardian mentioned that Monsanto had requested “renewed U. S. government support of Spain’s science-based agricultural biotechnology position through high-level U. S. government intervention.” Spain was regarded as a pro-GMO member of the EU. A cable from the U. S. embassy in Madrid stated that “If Spain falls, the rest of Europe will follow.” So far, the EU has remained steadfast.

None of these pro-GMO pressure tactics would have benefited the American public. But the corporations stand to cash in big time if the EU biotech policy changes. The Obama administration has a similarly close relationship with Big Ag .

According to Sourcewatch, Monsanto spent more than $4.5 million lobbying and nearly $200,000 on political donations in 2007/2008. Despite the lack of concrete results, it would be hard to argue that it wasn’t money well spent.